Wistful Thinking
Sorcery
Target player draws two cards, then discards four cards.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Planar Chaos
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #23766
Wistful Thinking draws you four cards and then makes you discard four — net zero on hand size, but it fills your graveyard and cycles through your deck at instant speed for two mana. In any deck that wants cards in the graveyard more than cards in hand, that's not a drawback; it's the whole point.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Wistful Thinking is a bulk common in every format that runs it, and it earns its slot almost exclusively in Commander. There, reanimator and graveyard-value shells treat the discard as fuel — Millicent, Wilhelt, Muldrotha, and similar commanders happily pitch four cards to set up a turn's worth of recursion. In Pauper it's theoretically available but rarely played, since the format rewards card advantage over graveyard setup at common rarity. Legacy and Vintage have more efficient looting effects and no real reason to run a spell this slow. Commander is its home, full stop.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Wistful Thinking is deep bulk — you'll find copies in any common box or throw-in trade. That price is stable; there's no scarcity story here, just a card that does exactly what graveyard decks need at a cost so low it's essentially free to include.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.